Great pension betrayal: Why municipal leaders must pay the price

South African municipalities owe R1.7 billion in unpaid pension contributions, taken directly from workers' salaries but diverted through mismanagement. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana flagged this during a compliance review, leading to Treasury withholding R13.5 billion in equitable share transfers from 69 non-compliant municipalities. Of these, only 16 were specifically flagged for pension fund arrears. The FSCA puts total unpaid pension arrears across all employers nationally at R8.3 billion, with municipalities and bargaining councils as the biggest offenders.